Man with a Camera explained

Man with a Camera should not be confused with Man with a Movie Camera.

Genre:Crime / Drama
Director:Paul Landres
Gerald Mayer
Starring:Charles Bronson
Theme Music Composer:Herschel Burke Gilbert
Composer:Leon Klatzin
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:2
Num Episodes:29
Producer:Don W. Sharpe
Warren Lewis
For MWC Productions, Inc.
Location:Hollywood, California at Desilu Studios, doubling for New York City
Cinematography:Paul Ivano
Robert B. Hauser
Black-and-White
Runtime:30 minutes
Channel:ABC

Man with a Camera is an American television crime drama starring Charles Bronson as a war veteran turned photographer and investigator.[1] It was broadcast on ABC from October 10, 1958, to February 29, 1960.[2]

This is the only TV series in which Bronson played the lead role.

Plot

Bronson portrayed Mike Kovac, a former World War II combat photographer. He usually assists "newspapers, insurance companies, the police, private individuals, and anyone else who wanted a filmed record of an event.

By often acting as a private eye, Kovac gets himself into plenty of trouble involving criminals of every kind, helping with cases the police could not handle.

Besides an array of cameras for normal use, for surreptitious work Kovac employs cameras hidden in a radio, cigarette lighter and even his necktie. He also has a phone in his car, and a portable darkroom in the trunk where he could develop his negatives on the spot. Kovac's police liaison is Lieutenant Donovan (James Flavin), though he frequently seeks advice from and is aided by Anton Kovac (Ludwig Stössel), his father. They are of ambiguous Eastern European ancestry, in one episode Mike and his father serve kapusta to another character.

Main cast

Selected guest stars

Episodes

Season 1: 1958–59

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Season 2: 1959–60

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Production

Man with a Camera was filmed in Culver City, California, at Desilu Studios.[3] From October 1958 to March 1959 it was broadcast on Fridays from 9 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time. From October 1959 to February 1960 it was broadcast on Mondays from 10:30 to 11 p.m. E.T.[1] General Electric's Lamp Division sponsored the 1959-1960 episodes.[4] Warren Lewis was the executive producer for Sharpe & Lewis Productions. A. E Houghton was the producer, and Gerald Mayer was a director.

Home media

The entire run of the series' 29 episodes was released in 2007 by the Infinity Entertainment Group, in collaboration with the Falcon Picture Group and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, from which the source prints were obtained.

Alpha Video has released three individual volumes on DVD, each containing four episodes from the series. A fourth volume was released on February 25, 2014. On October 17, 2017, Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete series on DVD + Digital.Entire Series can be seen on Tubi streaming.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Brooks. Tim. Marsh. Earle. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present. 1999. The Ballentine Publishing Group. New York. 0-345-42923-0. 623. 7th.
  2. Book: McNeil. Alex. Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present . 1996. Penguin Books USA, Inc.. New York, New York. 0-14-02-4916-8. 515. 4th.
  3. October 6, 1958 . 93 . This Week (Cont'd) . Ross Reports . July 16, 2023 .
  4. News: Adams . Val . Bellamy to Play Jefferson on TV . July 16, 2023 . The New York Times . August 10, 1959 . 47. subscription .